Immigrant Rights
Movement
By Danielle Short
In the last six months, the Colorado immigrant rights movement
was strengthened and energized by two major events with key AFSC
participation.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) held its second
annual statewide conference August 23-24. Lisa Durán, RAP
External Organizer/Executive Director, gave strong leadership to
general coordination and to designing a program that would ensure
strong grassroots participation. Kathy Michienzi, University of
Denver School of Social Work intern with AFSC, coordinated the registration
and much of the logistics. The turnout at the conference surpassed
our expectations, with about 150 people attending. Half of the attendees
were Latino/a immigrants, coming from Ft. Collins, Ft. Lupton and
Durango, in addition to Denver and Boulder.
The program opened on Saturday with a panel on Immigrant and Civil
Rights in the Arab Community in the U.S., giving an opportunity
for those working primarily on Latino immigrant issues to broaden
their understanding of crucial issues impacting other immigrant
communities. Then conference participants broke out into workshops
on the four campaign areas: DREAM Act (in-state tuition/adjustment
of status for undocumented immigrants graduating from U.S. high
schools), Workers' Rights, Driver's Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants,
and Opposition to the CLEAR Act (a federal bill that would require
local law police to enforce immigration policy). Gabriela Flora,
AFSC Central Region Project Voice Organizer, provided excellent
information and facilitation in the workshop on the CLEAR Act. The
workshops provided solid background information and a chance for
participants to begin to discuss how to move forward with campaigns.
A month later, on September 26, AFSC, RAP and
the Centro Humanitario participated in a local labor-community
coalition that welcomed the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride (IWFR)
to Denver. The IWFR was a national mobilization to focus public
attention on immigrant rights and the injustices of current immigration
policies. Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement,
buses with close to 1000 riders departed from nine major US cities
and stopped in over 100 cities to rally support for immigration
reform. The goal of the IWFR was to demonstrate a broad national
constituency for meaningful reform of immigration laws, while
also encouraging civic participation by new and future citizens.
The IWFR also educated the public and elected officials about
the four key requirements of a new immigration policy: legalization
and a road to citizenship for all immigrant workers in this country;
the right of immigrant workers to re-unite with their families;
protecting the rights of immigrants in the workplace; and protecting
civil liberties.
The local event, which featured now former
AFSC Program Director Minsun Ji and Centro Humanitario Center
Director Javier Carrizales as Emcees, highlighted speeches by
local workers; the Rev. James Orange, a Civil Rights Movement
leader; the Bishop José Gómez; Denver City Council
President Elbra Wedgeworth, who presented the City Council Resolution
that supported the IWFR 10-1; and State Reps. Terrance Carroll
and Mike Cerbo.
But the stars were the Freedom Riders themselves-non-immigrant
allies and immigrants from Russia, India and Latin America. Over
250 supporters waited close to two hours for the first two buses
to arrive. When they did, the supporters formed two lines of cheering
people, and as each rider entered the building the cheering and
chanting intensified. Many (myself included) found themselves
with tears in their eyes, overcome by the risks taken and sacrifices
made by taking such a public stand for the cause and by undertaking
such a grueling trip. This was intensified by the knowledge that
earlier in the day, two buses passing through Texas had been stopped
for four hours while the riders were questioned by the Border
Patrol. However, the riders had prepared themselves in advance
to exercise solidarity and their constitutional rights by remaining
silent in the face of questioning, and the Border Patrol found
no evidence that any of the riders were in their country illegally.
The Riders then continued on to Washington, D.C., where they lobbied
legislators from all 50 states, and then New York City, where they
held a celebratory rally of 100,000 people. The lasting impact for
many working for immigrant rights is a renewed realization that
laws are broken when immigrants enter the country without inspection,
but those laws cause human suffering, just as the Jim Crow laws
of the 1950's caused human suffering. We can, and must, turn the
tide of public opinion to recognize this and change those laws.
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